In the News

A food pantry volunteer hands 5-year-old Shannon a bag with three cookies as her mother, Amelia, waits her turn for emergency food in the crowded lobby of Hope Pantry. Amelia's husband once built barges and got good promotions, but now he suffers from arthritis so severe he can't use his hands.

The Sunday Oregonian published David Sarasohn’s interview with Susannah Morgan, OFB's new CEO. Susannah talks about her vision for new ways that Oregon Food Bank can address hunger. Read the full story.

Both the House and the Senate have approved versions of a farm bill that cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The expectation is that charities such as FOOD for Lane County will step in to fill the gap. To which Jon Stubenvoll, director of advocacy for the Oregon Food Bank, has this response: “We can’t do that — it simply won’t happen.”

Beverlee Hughes, executive director, FOOD for Lane County, and a member of the OFB Board of Directors, and Sam Engel, resource development coordinator, Josephine County Food Bank, participated in a live, half-hour radio interview on Jefferson Exchange, Nov. 20, about the results of the Hunger Factors Survey.

Oregon Food Bank and SnowCap, one of OFB's Portland metro area partner agencies were featured on CBS News in a story about the drop in donations to charities during election years. Read full story and view video.

The farm bill approved by the Senate last week makes significant changes in existing farm programs, some for the better. But it takes a disproportionate whack from environmental programs, needlessly trims food stamps and does not fundamentally alter the program’s bias toward relatively well-off growers of big crops like corn, wheat and soybeans.

Friday's dinner to honor Rachel Bristol's retirement after 29 years leading the Oregon Food Bank symbolized literally tens of millions of other dinners, distributed over decades to Oregon families who had run out of other options. Bristol's monument was built in hundreds of church basements, out of family-size cans of chili and boxes of macaroni collected in countless food drives.